FIDE May 2013 ratings – big changes at the top

5/2/2013 – The monthly ratings published by FIDE usually show little variation amongst the strongest players. Not so in April, where a number in the top ten slot gained up to 22 points, and one player dropped a thumping 48 points in a single month, descending from fourth to 14th place in the world. May 2013 rating of FIDE.

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Top climbers and descenders

Here's a list of all players from the top 100 who gained or lost five or
more points. As you can see there was a great deal of reshuffling at the
top: Vladimir Kramnik and especially Veselin Topalov gained a bunch of points,
the latter climbing from eighth to fourth place on the rating scale. Grischuk,
Nakamura and Svidler did very well too, while Sergey Karjakin dropped nineteen
points in a single month. Worst hit was Teimour Radjabov, who lost an incredible
48 points, dropping from fourth to 14th in the world rankings. The French
will be interested to note that Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is no longer their
top GM, having been overtaken by Etienne Bacrot, who gained 20 points in
April.

See also

3/1/2018 – FIDE just published the new ratings and the official world ranking list. Compared to March there are some slight changes among the top ten, but World Champion Magnus Carlsen is still clear number one. Number two in the world is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, followed by Vladimir Kramnik on three. Hou Yifan leads the women's list.

See also

11/30/2017 – What an interesting month it was for ratings. At the top, there were a few changes and personal bests, but among the Girls and Juniors we saw significant leaps forward. Among the elite, the news was the win by Levon Aronian (again!) and Dmitri Jakovenko, but lower down among the youth, several records are getting ready to topple. Enjoy this review of the new ratings list. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

Video

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.